Yeesh, I've been workin' lately. I need to start clearing out my studio to make room for bigger (meaning, huge) commission and show pieces that I'm starting. I haven't done two 4ft x 5ft pieces at the same time in my little apartment, since.... well, since last year, for my last show. Somehow it's baffling that I was able to do that at all, especially since I have more room now! Ah well. That's the fun of it. Although, I may have to delay any other commissions that size until after the show, unless we move into a bigger place. Woo studio fun! I still have to fit smaller, but still large show pieces in there too. Hmm.

I'm not really a frozen yogurt person, or an ice cream person for that matter. I'm not saying I dislike sweet frozen dairy, exactly. I just don't really get the obsession some people have. It's dairy. That's frozen. And sweet. I don't know. People really go nuts over this sh-stuff though, and I've heard many stories of lines out the door. Even today, we had to hover forever behind a group of people who needed to get a little bit of every single flavor available to them, all in one cup. All in one huge, massive, multi-colored frozen yogurt extravaganza.

I got Taro and Green Tea, because why wouldn't I, and a bunch of mixed fruit. I was really more impressed with the fruit selection than anything else. They had fresh berries! Rad. Kiwi and mangoes and strawberries and blueberries and blackberries and ahhhhh! Fruit.

I'll save the fruity pebbles and lucky charms for you crazy fruitnuts out there who put cereal on your desserts. (I can judge you, because I haven't tried it.)

Except for the buffet style toppings bar, which brings out my germaphobia and generally freaks me out (I hate buffets) it was pretty good experience. I even promised Colin I would take him.

Not like, permanently. Just sometimes, for a day or so. I mean, I guess it's not realistic to get in good painting time every single day of the week, or else I'd end up doing *nothing* else. Especially when I already do paint almost every single day of the week. For like 6-10 hours a day. Whew.

Being an artist is weird.

Being a politician is more weird. I'm glad I'm not a politician.

The funny thing is, whenever I decide to accept my non-interest in painting, and declare an "evening off," I get about 3 hours into it before I become bored and start thinking of something entertaining to do, something fun. Inevitably, I arrive at the novel idea of: "I know! I'll paint something!!!"

Giant Crystal Cave on the National Geographic Channel tonight. (9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific) (and also again at 9pm Pacific.)

"A team of scientists explore a Mexican cave filled with giant crystals; some of the largest ever discovered. With temperatures near 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and over 80 per cent humidity, the cave is one of the deadliest environments on earth."

Honestly, I just wanted to perfect some things from my last batch and play around more. Also, it gives me something to do while my other 11 paintings dry and I'm watching politics or science shows. :o)

I'm sure I'll finish them up and list them on Etsy soon enough. I found out it's a wonderful way to use my sketches. Well, granted, I just discovered this when I did that last one on the bottom there. But still. Color Studies can get too complicated sometimes, and really, I like to use Color Studies in a longer, more drawn out way, to experiment freely with lots of different ideas before calling them finished. This is like a rough draft to a Color Study.

Really, I didn't ever think that I would enter the ACEO world. Generally I prefer to paint bigger. BIGGER! But, well, I don't know. Colin has these cute little pre-cut miniature watercolor papers lying around that he sometimes paints on. One day, I couldn't help but snag a few, just to see what it would be like. Did I mention they're miniature? 2.5 x 3.5 inches. That's like the size of a playing card. ACEOs are pretty big on Etsy, and I guess in the larger (ha) art world in general. It's like a tiny representation of your art. And, I guess, the fact that they're so little is pretty novel in itself. I mean, I had to fit an entire painting on an itty bitty little piece of paper. Incredible.

Anyway, so I actually ended up selling 3 of the 4 I listed in the time it took me to list them on Etsy before getting over here to make a blog post about it. So, there's one left! That red and yellow one that's at the bottom of the list there.

It will come in a plastic sleeve, and be mailed with a postcard of Interrupt's. Yay.

Have I ever mentioned that I like disaster movies? Not like I think they're some high form of cinematic art or anything. Quite the opposite. I find them entertaining for their very ridiculousness. What can I say? They're awesome. Things shaking, comets slamming into planets, tidal waves. Awesome.

Hey, some people like zombie movies.

Like, just now, I noticed something called "10.5 Apocalypse" was on the Sci-Fi channel, and I had to turn it on. The title alone was enough. See, now, some disaster movies will be dramatized stories about things that *could* happen (even if it's unlikely) such as an asteroid hitting the earth. That could happen.

A 10.5 earthquake? That isn't scientifically possible. Read your pamphlet on how the Richter Scale works. Well, assuming we're not talking about the earth cracking in half or something. I knew immediately that this was going to be particularly entertaining. Granted, I just turned it on, I'm not even positive what's happening. They already mentioned something about the Gulf of Mexico flooding the Mississippi and separating the United States into 2 parts. YES.

Oh, wouldn't you know it. That poor nurse covered by falling debris and slot machines and pool tables in a Las Vegas casino just found out yesterday that she was pregnant. Darn. What timing.

Ahhhh, sweeeeet. George Washington's face just shattered and fell to the ground at Mt. Rushmore. AWESOME.

It's kind of freaking me out that every person who has an important medical, science, or government related job in this movie looks to be my age or younger. Seriously? Are they qualified to be doing this?

Look, I could have told you that rappelling down a broken elevator shaft during the apocalypse was a bad idea. Duh.

....And they just advertised "NYC: Tornado Terror" on later tonight. Heh.

This painting has a deceptively large amount of lines and dots, something that I realized after I'd been painting them for what felt like years. After finishing Enlightenment, (actually it was started before I even finished Enlightenment) I was compelled to do something really orange and warm colored. It's like each new painting is a response to the previous one. The orange of this piece really contrasts with the teal of my last one. That's what was exciting to me while painting it. Orange!

I say "my last one" as though Enlightenment is the last piece I finished, which is not remotely true, since I've completed bazillions of smaller pieces since then. My art brain works on a strange, fractal-like, ripple system, in which different things influence different paintings, and although my larger pieces are an on-going conversation with each other, my smaller ones are like the fragmented echoes of the conversation I'm having with my larger ones.

Hmm. I'm not sure how to reword that. Art Brain. Ripples. Echoes. There you have it.